With the launch of Cisco’s software-defined networking startup Insieme expected tomorrow, our industry is about to hear a lot about “application-centric” everything. So what does “application-centric infrastructure” mean?
First, some basics: Networking is about connecting computing devices and systems so they can share data. Networking infrastructures are built with a combination of hardware such as gateways, routers, and switches that manage the movement of the data as well as software applications that enable you to do things like access the Internet and send email.
As you could probably guess, application-centric infrastructure is a type of networking that is based on the application. In an application-centric network, the network administrator manages a system for a specific application rather than managing individual servers and routers like they did in the past.